Kolorscape mini marble chips..

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

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Jan 11, 2013
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West Falls NY
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Joel
I purchased a bag of this from Lowes today to use as substrate for my 55g. I love it! It's much whiter/brighter than the pea gravel I used from them for my 29gal.

~$3.70 vs. about $30 for the cheapest fish store gravel. It does take some work to wash out. I washed it out in my wheel-barrow, then transferred it to a pail to get it into the tank. That was the easy part.

WOW what a workout filling a 55 with a 5gal pail. Gotta rig a hose from the sink to tank.
 
I though marble chips are made of calcium carbonate, which disolves in Lower PH water===Making water harder and more Alkaline (higher PH).
 
Lovely. Could be.. I dunno?

My tap water has a pH of 7.8 per my API kit. The highest reading on the "low range" chart.

I'll keep an eye on it.
 
Yes, marble chips are made of limestone, or calcium carbonate, whichever name you prefer. I assumed that since Freshy wasn't asking about it, that he chose that deliberately, knowing what it would do to his water chemistry.
 
FreshyFresh said:
Lovely. Could be.. I dunno?

My tap water has a pH of 7.8 per my API kit. The highest reading on the "low range" chart.

I'll keep an eye on it.
Click to expand...

Well, in light of this entry, you didn't know. This could be a problem. Unfortunately, it also goes to show that just because it's at a home improvement store for less than something "comparable" at a LFS, it doesn't mean that it's interchangeable with the more expensive LFS product every time.
 
They'll get coated with a bio film and unless you clean them off or move it around a lot, I think a lot of the leaching should stop.
 
Marble won't dissolve in water with a pH that high, although in a gravel bed there could be little pockets of biological activity that could cause some low pH conditions that could allow some dissolution.
 
Thanks all.

I made a mistake above, my tap water pH is a 7.6 (not 7.8) per the API master test kit. The highest on the "low range" test.

Thing is, wouldn't a bag of pet/fish store "natural" gravel have a somewhat high percentage of limestone and calcium carbonate substrate in it anyway?

FWIW, I let the tank run over night and just tested pH. Still at 7.6

I might try a vinegar test with a pinch of this substrate to see if it fizzes.
 
Don't waste your time on the vinegar test unless you really want to see what a "failure" looks like. Marble will fizz because vinegar has a pH of about 3. Just don't try keeping blackwater stuff and you'll be fine.
 
This would be a good substrate for many of the live bearers, that thrive in calcium rich waters.

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